Snow causes havoc on Calaveras roads

Wednesday

Feb 20, 2013 at 12:01 AM

SAN FRANCISCO - A mid-winter storm brought colder temperatures, a rare tornado and much-needed rain to California on Tuesday, and dumped snow in the Sierra and on even relatively low-elevation Bay Area mountain peaks.

Staff and wire reports

SAN FRANCISCO - A mid-winter storm brought colder temperatures, a rare tornado and much-needed rain to California on Tuesday, and dumped snow in the Sierra and on even relatively low-elevation Bay Area mountain peaks.

The storm came out of the Gulf of Alaska, bringing the first significant rainfall to the region in several weeks, the National Weather Service said.

Periodic showers, including bits of hail, hit the Bay Area in time for the morning commute while a batch of new snow fell in the Sierra, where ski resorts around Lake Tahoe were expecting up to 8 inches of snow.

Huge snowflakes fell as low as San Andreas at 900 feet elevation in Calaveras County on Tuesday afternoon, even as authorities reported slick roads and accidents higher in the mountains.

California Highway Patrol Lt. Scott Clamp said somewhere between 50 to 75 vehicles either became stranded or were in collisions on Highway 49 and other nearby roadways when it started snowing heavily around 2:30 p.m.

Clamp says there were a handful of minor injuries, but no major injuries involved.

The Calaveras County Sheriff's Office dispatch center received reports of several snow-related accidents on Highway 49 south of Angels Camp and also on Highway 4 near Arnold. Calaveras County snow plow crews were at work late Tuesday to clear the roads.

Public safety officials urged motorists to carry chains, blankets, food, water and extra warm clothing in their vehicles.

Pea-sized hail fell on downtown and southern Sacramento, and the National Weather Service reported Davis received less than an inch of hail around 1:20 p.m.

The weather service predicted showers with the possibility of thunderstorms before evening. Sacramento-area temperatures were in the 40s as hail fell. Less than an inch of rain had fallen across the region by noon, the NWS reported.

Light snow flurries were spotted high in the hills in Oakland and in neighboring Berkeley, said Rick Canepa, a National Weather Service meteorologist based in Monterey. The storm also left a dusting of snow on the top of Mt. Hamilton near San Jose and on the tips of Mt. Diablo in the East Bay by early Tuesday afternoon.

In the Sacramento area, a tornado with winds speeds between 40 to 70-miles-per-hour was spotted north of Red Bluff shortly after 1:30 p.m., according to the weather service. It caused little or no damage.

More rain was forecast for the Bay area and for parts of Southern California for later Tuesday. Authorities warned of hazardous conditions for drivers on mountain and interior valley roads overnight into early Wednesday, when the storm was expected to move east.

Even though San Francisco saw highs in the 70s last week, California has been experiencing a colder-than-normal winter overall.

"We went from about 10 degrees above normal this past weekend to 10 degrees below today," said Austin Cross, another weather service meteorologist based in Monterey. "We're usually somewhere in the 60s, temperature-wise, at this time of year."

San Francisco has accumulated nearly 14 inches of rain since October - about 85 percent of its normal rainfall during the fall-winter season, Cross said. Oakland has comparably received 83 percent and San Jose has had about 80 percent, he added.